Repeat Offender: Sin City's Most Prolific Criminal and the Cop Who Caught Him

Millions in stolen property, revolting sex crimes, and murder-for-hire were all in the mix for a Las Vegas police detective, as he toiled to take Sin City's most prolific criminal off the streets for good. Detective Bradley Nickell brings you the inside scoop on the investigation, arrest, and conviction of the most prolific repeat offender Las Vegas has ever known.

The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World's Most-Wanted Drug Lord

With El Chapo vulnerable as never before, Mexican and DEA authorities are closing in, and journalist Malcolm Beith, a Newsweek contributor who has spent years reporting on the drug wars, follows the chase with full access to senior officials and exclusive interviews with soldiers and drug traffickers in the region, including members of Guzman's cartel. The Last Narco combines fearless reporting with the story of El Chapo's legendary rise from a poor farming family to the "capo" of the world's largest drug empire.

Dead Biker: Inside the Violent World of the Mexican Drug Cartels

Ned "Crash" Aiken thought he had made a clean break. He had turned on his biker brothers in the Sons of Satan and entered the FBI's witness protection program, only to end up in a different kind of prison, one of mediocre work and cheap apartments. He then fell in with the Russian mob, learning their brutal code first-hand and fleeing their organization when the stakes got too high. Between the FBI, the Sons, and the Russians, there are a lot of people who want to get their hands on the innocent-looking ex-drug trafficker.

American Desperado: My Life - From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset

In 2008 veteran journalist Evan Wright, acclaimed for his New York Times best-selling book Generation Kill and co-writer of the Emmy-winning HBO series it spawned, began a series of conversations with super-criminal Jon Roberts, star of the fabulously successful documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Those conversations would last three years, during which time Wright came to realize that Roberts was much more than the de-facto “transportation chief” of the Medellin Cartel during the 1980s, much more than a facilitator of a national drug epidemic.

Hostage Nation: Colombia's Guerrilla Army and the Failed War on Drugs

The crash of a U.S. reconnaissance plane into the Colombian jungle on February 13, 2003, set off a series of events that, five years later, would bring three South American countries on a collision course toward war, pit a giant government contractor against its employer - the U.S. government - and catapult a 40-year-old guerrilla army to the international stage as one of the most active and successful terrorist organizations in the world.

Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire

Doctor Dealer is the story of Larry Lavin, a bright, charismatic young man who rose from his working-class upbringing to win a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, earn Ivy League college and dental degrees, and buy his family a house in one of Philadelphia's most exclusive suburbs. But behind the facade of his success was a dark secret - at every step of the way he was building the foundation for a cocaine empire that would grow to generate over $60 million in annual sales.

High: Confession of an International Drug Smuggler

In the early 1980s, Brian O'Dea was operating a $100 million a year, 120-man drug smuggling business, and had developed a terrifying cocaine addiction. Under increasing threat from the DEA in 1986 for importing seventy-five tons of marijuana into the United States, he quit the trade - and the drugs - and began working with recovering addicts in Santa Barbara. Despite his life change, the authorities caught up with him years later and O'Dea was arrested, tried, and sentenced to ten years at Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary in Los Angeles Harbor.

When Britain Saved the West: The Story of 1940

From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler's Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain's defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time - war diaries, combat reports, Home Security's daily files, and much more - to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises.

The Unknown Mongol

This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.

Black Hawk Down

Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there - and how they fought their way out. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces and puts you in the middle of the most intense firelight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam war.

The Mob and the City: The Hidden History of How the Mafia Captured New York

Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s.

El Narco: The Bloody Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels

The world has watched stunned at the bloodshed in Mexico. Thirty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped in town squares. The United States throws Black Hawk helicopters and drug agents at the problem. But in secret, Washington is confused and divided about what to do. "Who are these mysterious figures tearing Mexico apart?" they wonder.

The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden

From Mark Bowden, internationally best-selling and acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down and the preeminent chronicler of the actions of our military and special forces writing today, comes an intensely gripping account of the hunt for and elimination of Osama bin Laden. With unprecedented access to key sources and his great gift for storytelling, Bowden takes us inside the rooms where decisions were made and on the ground where the action unfolded.

The Corridor Killer:: Delaware, Notorious USA

The first documented female serial killer in the US came out of the tiny state of Delaware, as did a signature killer who attracted FBI profilers. Political intrigue winds through an unsolved mystery in Wilmington while a high-powered attorney ruined his life to punish his mistress. Here we have poisoners, bludgeoners, and some privileged teenagers who killed their baby. The corridor state between New Jersey and Maryland might be small, but it has harbored some very dark characters.

Murder of a Mafia Daughter: The Story Behind the Suspicions Robert Durst Murdered Susan Berman & The Life and Tragic Death of Susan Berman

Susan Berman grew up in Las Vegas luxury as the daughter of Davie Berman, casino mogul and notorious mafia leader. After her father died she learned about his mob connections. Susan then dedicated her life to learning about Vegas and its underworld chiefs. Her life took a bizarre turn in l982 when Kathie Durst - the wife of her good friend, Robert Durst - mysteriously disappeared. Kathie's husband was a prime suspect but the case was never solved.

The Cartel

From the internationally best-selling author of the acclaimed novel The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping, ripped-from-the-headlines story of power, corruption, revenge, and justice spanning the past decade of the Mexican-American drug wars.

Cocaina: A Book on Those Who Make It

When Colombia's 'King of Cocaine', Pablo Escobar, was killed, the world thought the cocaine industry would crumble. But ten years later the country's production had almost quadrupled, and for the last decade Colombia has produced more than 60 percent of all the cocaine consumed in the world. The drug is both a curse and a salvation for Colombians. Farmers grow coca for cash but fear discovery. Families must co-operate with drug-funded guerrillas or go on the run.

Publisher's Summary

On July 22, 1992, Colombian druglord Pablo Escobar walked out of the luxurious prison he built for himself and disappeared into the Colombian jungle. His audacious escape destroyed the nation's tenuous cease-fire with its infamous narcos, and pushed it into open war with the Medellin drug cartel.

Over the coming days and weeks, the United States launched a joint military and intelligence operation with the Colombian government, assembling a team of expert personnel and an arsenal of state-of-the-art weaponry and surveillance technology the likes of which the world had never seen. Their mission: to track down Pablo.

But this time, they knew it would not be enough to just capture Escobar. This time, they would have to finish the job. This time, they were going to kill him.

As somebody who uses Audible to make my commute bearable, I have the tendency to gravitate mostly towards mindless fiction to make the time pass... and base my reviews primarily on how successful books do with that criteria.

That being said... this is a book that isn't mindless, but still kept me captivated. It's a facinating look into both American policies in Central America as well as techniques that are used in tracking people. I have thought about this book frequently during the recent hunts for Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. I was very surprised how hit-and-miss the technologies seem to be.

The author does a good job in presenting the details of the situations without making personal judgement on the characters involved, but does so in a manner that isn't school-bookish.

Excellent book that not only tells an exciting story, but also delves into Columbia's past and provides some insight into how a manical person such as Pablo Escabar can rise to such power and in some eyes prestige

This is a story worthy of Robert Ludlum or Elmore Leonard. Intrigue, deception, suspense, global politics and fantasy -- plus it's actually true! Provides a wild inside view to the cocaine trade, Columbian politics and the bizarre world that money can create. Pablo emerges as an almost mythic figure, on the one hand revered by his associates and public, and on the other a frighteningly brutal indescriminate killer. Without giving away the story, I'll tell you that there are real parallels with the Elliot Ness story of the untouchables. A great read (listen).

Bowden is one of the few authors who can read his own work and keep you intrigued. The trade-off is that he does sound like a journalist rather than a story teller.
You won't find a more well-researched account of the drug wars up close and personal. A fascinating read and one of the books I found myself listening to in my driveway.
My only beef - it's abridged...

Mark Bowden's writing on the modern history of Columbia and the horror that engulfed the entire country for a decade is an astonishing piece of work.
This is a gripping work of non-fiction and is a truly powerful insight to one of the world's most notorious terrorists, Pablo Escobar.

I don't share the other reviewers' enthusiasm for this book. The author is also the reader...and he does not bring a great deal of enthusiasm to the table. The story reads like a chronicle. In all, it's a rather stiff, uninspired timeline of Pablo Escobar's life.

In my opinion this is Bowden's best work. His detail and research is unparalleled and the story itself couldn't be any more wild if it was fiction. Bowden offers a gripping look inside the many faces of Escobar, from the ruthless cartel boss that waged war on the Columbian state to the concerned family man who fought fiercely to keep his family safe.

The wealth, violence and details are shocking and Bowden's ability to organize so many narratives and perspectives into a single, cohesive timeline makes for one of the best non-fiction titles I've ever read. Having both the audiobook and the paperback, the abridged audiobook doesn't exclude much. As for the audiobook, Bowden's delivery, often direct and with disregard for political correctness, exponentially improves the quality of the audiobook as you get the sense that the man who did the research is telling you a great campfire story.

The author does a good job of weaving together the many moving parts that were involved with trying to bring Pablo Escobar to "justice." I like when authors read their own books, and this author does it fairly well. It was also interesting to see some current in-the-news names popping up in the roles they held 15 years ago.

The story is inherently interesting- the rise and fall of one of the most successful, vicious criminals in world history. Bowden's a decent reader, though I would have liked to have gotten this story unabridged. Overall, a brisk, satisfying tale, though one you could get just as well through CNN or the History Channels adaptations.

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